The combined valuation of the Initial Public Offerings (IPO) and buyouts of Israeli companies this year reached a record of nearly $15 billion The Jerusalem Post reported yesterday.

Throughout the year, 70 companies either got bought out or had initial public offerings, reaching a five-year high. The average value of the deals, moreover, stood at a record high of $212 million, roughly 25 percent higher than in 2013 and over five times the value of the average deal in 2007. Overall, the deals amounted to $14.85 billion, according to the survey.

Most of the increased values came from companies choosing to list on stock exchanges rather than to exit. Of the 70 deals, 18 were IPOs, totaling $9.8b., as opposed to $1.2b.

The interest in Israeli tech startups didn’t flag during Operation Protective Edge with funding for Israeli companies reaching $701 million over the summer. In August Mobileye, a startup developing an automobile accident avoidance system, had a record IPO of nearly $1 billion.

The success of Israel’s tech sector was apparent early in the year as venture capital funding of Israeli companies jumped 53% in the first quarter of 2014.

At the beginning of the year The Tower carried a report from The Wall Street Journal predicting that IPO’s would overtake buyouts as the badge of success for Israeli startups and that between 15 and 20 companies would have IPO’s. Both predictions were correct.

[Photo: ISRAEL21Cdotcom / YouTube ]